We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Nobody - Rarities 2009​-​2010

by Oneida

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

1.
Rev 02:20
2.
TSMTJ 05:41
3.
GTGW 09:03
4.
Equinox 09:21
5.
Last Hit 02:56
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

about

This collection gathers work produced in the Ocropolis, Oneida’s Brooklyn waterfront studio, in and around 2009-2010. These newly remastered recordings were originally released in limited and hard-to-find contexts. They document an intense and fertile period during the planning and recording of the “Thank Your Parents” triptych of releases on Jagjaguwar records: Preteen Weaponry (2008), Rated O (2009), Absolute II (2011).


The abstractions and explorations collected here show Oneida’s first steps on a winding path through challenging recorded material and extended improvisational/collaborative performances. These years would see a series of all-day performance installations at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festivals in the US and UK (“Oneida presents the Ocropolis”); as well as experimental album releases including A List of the Burning Mountains (2012 Jagjaguwar), The Brah Tapes (2014 Brah), and a collaboration with Rhys Chatham, What’s Your Sign? (2016 Northern Spy).


Oneida would return to a version of song-based psychedelic noise with 2018’s double LP Romance (Joyful Noise Recordings), bringing back scars and treasures from years in the wilderness.


Theory


The Ocropolis was underground -- in the basement of Monster Island -- way underground, like at least a thousand steps to load in and out. We brought a piano down those steps once. It was Bobby’s childhood piano -- although it’s pretty well remembered that somehow Bobby wasn’t there when the piano was moved, funny thing -- and as it descended slowly down the endless flight into the Ocrop, it was understood that it would never leave this dim vault. It’s still there, too, pulverized under the rubble of Monster Island, like a seed waiting for the Williamsburg waterfront to be tilled under again.


It was dark in the Ocropolis until you turned on the beer lights and the color wheel. Barry brought those in. The live room was big machines; the control room, lofted up behind scarred plexiglass (thanks to Erik Z and Rachel Nelson for that and pretty much everything else) was little machines, circuit-bent toys and audio fidgets. There was a kind of push-pull between those spaces, like in every studio, that took some time to map and tune. You could sit on the little flight of steps in front of the control room door, next to the window, and look out over the synths, organs, amps, and fur. So much fur, so little light.


Eventually we got the space, both spaces, in some sort of tuning -- a different kind of harmony. An intonation based on Ocropolitical theory, which doesn’t translate and resists transcription. You can hear it in this music, though. Oneida pushed into a lot of grimy corners and spent days mapping the geometry there. We wrote songs and made albums, but we also got fearless and found our way to strange, deep places that ended up on record in unpredictable spots. Here are the maps to the Ocropolis, recorded pretty much 2009-2010, although the edges are frayed a little on the dating. And you might need a Schaefer light to read the runes.


Maps


Rev -- well you know Barry, right? This song sounds like his house on Humboldt Street -- no idea how much of it was recorded or conceived there, but you can hear the kitchen and smell the couch anyway. This was definitely finished at the Ocropolis. Oneida played with Alan Vega around this time, an epic version of “Rocket USA” at a WFMU party in Brooklyn, and then got sidetracked working on tracks for a 12” collaboration with him. This isn’t that material, but you know, if you came here for linear clarity that’s on you. This was released on a Joyful Noise “rarities” 7”.


TSMTJ -- Damn this is so beautiful. PCRZ quit Oneida in 2001 - but he will often rejoin the O when it’s time for an episode. He's playing that melody. Hand drums, Kid screaming, maybe it's one of Barry's tabla boxes as well? This tune and the next, GTGW, were for a split 12” with Pterodactyl on German label Altin Village and Mine. Pterodactyl gave the label some nice songs, including a great Byrds cover. We were deep into some other kind of journey. This track is so good - they were lucky to have it - but holy shit, the next one….


GTGW -- ….Twilight. Liminal balance, right on the edge. Oneida was finding ways to perch in between musical states, simultaneously insisting on and undermining a disciplined approach that would crumble into the dust of “Absolute II” a couple months later. We lived in the cave Ocropolis. The label switched the titles of these two tracks on the record; but they’re correct here.


Equinox -- This and “Last Hit” were released on a one-sided 12” by a tiny Italian label called XHOL Recordings. The other side of the record is a beautiful screenprint, as is the record jacket. Well, they weren’t actually called XHOL when they asked us to make a record. They had...a different name. Very sweet dudes, but we had to tell them to change the name of their label if they wanted to release our record. They did, and maybe we saved some well-meaning non-native speakers a humiliating future cancellation. You can tell this tune was recorded on a sunny day, breeze skipping off the river, and Oneida missing the whole bright pennant-snapping freshness, delving in the cracks and creases of the shadowy Ocropolis. Missed a lot of sunshine. As Kid says, “I don’t regret a minute of it!”


Last Hit -- Sounds like a drug reference, maybe.


Where’d He Go -- Bathe in the insouciance, like discipline is no big deal. An intense time. This was done live - in the dark - as per usual in those days. Amp hiss, tremolo, phasing, pressure, resistance. Genius mixing courtesy of Barry and Kid and Showtime, probably -- time blunts precision. We sent the track off to Yeti Magazine for a compilation ordered by duration (track 1 = one minute, track 2 = 2 minutes, etc). This track appeared under an incorrect name, somehow ending up listed as "Girlfriend" in the magazine. Mike was apologetic though, and still stands in the light as far as the O is concerned.


The Human Factor -- Originally released on an incredible one-sided 12” by Boston-based Limited Appeal Records, with an insane etching on the B-side. This is a brutally intense version of a tune on Rated O. Oneida did a series of multi-hour in-studio performances with audiences crammed into the live room and control booth; this was the end of the third set at one of those scenes. Some of us were wearing blazers -- Kid was wearing a winter parka. The way Kid tells it: Haha - well. . .I was dealing with some dark feelings. . .it was not always a fun place to visit. It was not easy for me to play drums and sing this way - so you can hear on this recording, I believe Shahin is on the drums at the beginning. I remember Lisa Corson taking photos of this performance. They might even be on flickr or whatever. I'm surprised this is only 16 mins long. I thought it was 30 mins. Ha.


Shahin’s Bong -- This one was sometimes titled "Shahin's Song" elsewhere. What happened was Showtime bought his girlfriend a giant bong and weed for her birthday (you can just imagine a hapless Showtime handing over this gift with a big excited smile). Turns out the gift made his significant other extremely agitated and that meant the bong ended up in the Ocropolis. Around this time Rocket Recordings wanted to do something with us, so we spent a lot of time assembling this mix of different incredible performances and invite-only public sessions. We didn’t charge for tickets - but you needed a ticket to get in. Anyway. . .we handed over a long track to Rocket - one of our greatest. And in the spirit of much of the music business, there was an unforeseen issue. See - the label wanted to do the art. Rocket Recordings art was often incredible. So we said yes - we just trusted them to deliver something awesome. Well, the artwork - while of a certain style - actually created a kind of weird alternate reality force field of its own. We call it the "Invisible Record" b/c when laid out on the merch table - it NEVER gets purchased. Occasionally Kid will demand a fan buy it. After they explain what albums they like, Kid guides them to this unseen record sitting RIGHT THERE. But other than that - no one buys it. The other side of the record is by Mugstar, Liverpool pals of the O. It's a cool track. Their song is called "European Nihilism" -- someone misspelled "Nihilism" on the jacket, though. A segment of “Shahin’s Bong” was used by Joshua Light Show during their Museum of Natural History residency. You can hear that section start at 11:36 or so. This is a hand drum haven that sounds like abandoned bear cages, but that’s anachronous on so many levels. Might also be synesthetic but that’s hard to tell. Last fact: Sightings broke the bong.


Economy Travel 2 -- This is the purest Ocropolitical Discourse available in nugget size. Oneida following the absolutes. Released on a multi-band 7” by Brighton, UK label One Inch Badge in 2011. The label misidentified the songs on the record, so Oneida isn’t credited with this -- some other poor band had to wear the shackles for a minute.


Atari (8 bit intro) -- This was a whole song once. Kid had vocals to go along with his tremendously lyrical drumming, something about a romance not working out. The vocals were never recorded, and now the song tells its own story in history and provenance instead of exposition, how about that. Originally available in a different version on a flexidisc from Joyful Noise.


All tracks originally recorded by Oneida, 2009-2010, and remastered by Colin Marston, 2021.

Art by Dan Schechter.

credits

released April 2, 2021

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Oneida New York, New York

shows

contact / help

Contact Oneida

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Oneida, you may also like: